NAFTAgate lands on Hillary's doorstep

By Libby

There's been reams of analysis on how Hillary managed to swing her victories this past Tuesday. My take is the 3:00am ad probably didn't do much but the kitchen sink attacks probably helped her in that the media magnified them. However the biggest reason was the NAFTA controversy she ginned up. Today's news brings a new wrinkle in that story that suggests she threw that bomb to win the short term battle but that now looks likely to blow up in her face.

The Canadian press is reporting that the original leak came straight from PM Harper's right hand man, Ian Brodie and more importantly, it was the Clinton campaign that contacted them with the "wink-wink."

"Quite a few people heard it," said one source in the room.

"He said someone from (Hillary) Clinton's campaign is telling the embassy to take it with a grain of salt. . . That someone called us and told us not to worry."

Government officials did not deny the conversation took place.

If you haven't been following this, Steve Benen has the backstory and rightly notes that accusing Obama for something her own campaign did will likely backfire if the press now does its job and takes the story back to her doorstep. It's also useful to remember that Harper's administration is more than cozy with Bush.

I have two immediate reactions to this news. First is that the Clinton campaign strategy shows an alarming resemblence to Rove's tactics and second, it seems increasingly clear the wingnuts have decided that Clinton is their preferred candidate and are willing to do anything they can to help her win.

Meanwhile, there are now at least four documented instances of Hillary effectively saying that John McCain would make a better president than Obama. This will only lend fuel to the current theory making the rounds that Clinton is willing to sabotage Obama, and the party, in order to preserve her chances at another try in 2012 should she fail to snag the nomination this time around.